Tag Archives: community

RED COUCH is a pop-up visual arts gallery celebrating the art of Metro Community artists and friends. Red Couch doesn’t take a commission, instead they support, honour and share Metro Community artists works in hopes they will find a way into the lives and hearts of others.

Lesley-Anne led the ideation and creation of Red Couch, and is excited to be opening the bright little street front space to the public.

For me, Metro Community is a convergence point of spirit and art, made up of people who are hungry to belong, to be heard, and loved, and at the same time are risk takers open to creative expression and the rawness of sharing that process with others. I’ve seen transformation take place, for example, within our writing circles, where the hard truths of personal experience are spoken of and held with such grace and tenderness. The marginalized and vulnerable are capable of deep love and trust, which is a beautiful mystery.

So I believe Red Couch is going to be a surprising place where image dei and the creative spirit of Metro Community is celebrated, and I expect those who come to see the art might just sense something otherworldly is taking place here.

Lesley-Anne Evans, Metro’s Art Curator, and poet/community artist

If you pass by Red Couch on St. Paul Street in Kelowna, you will see a number of brilliant, vibrant portraits newly installed in the space. They were created by the talented artist Liz Ranney, and will be on display through August 15th. Liz designed the Red Couch logo, and along with her husband, artist Dylan Ranney, consulted with Lesley-Anne during gallery planning and implementation. Liz and Dylan are Metro Community family.

You might like to know why a red couch?

The retro, up-cycled couch in the Red Couch was found in the corner of a thrift shop. Like the overlooked, burnt out, vulnerable, and disenfranchised people often welcomed into Metro Community, the red couch is slightly tattered, and is an imperfectly beautiful centrepiece. The red couch has become a symbol of home and radical welcome, the heart of Metro Community and the art gallery.

“Paint The Town Red” is a mini-launch for the gallery which will take place at Red Couch on Thursday, July 6, 2017 from 5-7 pm. Wear something red for a photo op with the red couch. Red Couch is at 1262 St Paul Street, Kelowna.

For the past several months Lesley-Anne Evans has been curating the social media campaign Holding Out Hope.

Beginning with a commemorative poetry wall (see CBC article here) immediately prior to the demolition of Metro’s drop-in centre, Metro Community members are invited to share words that humanize and build understanding. Lesley-Anne and others listen, record and share.

Holding Out Hope invites Kelowna’s marginalized and vulnerable ‘others’ to be known, rather than passed by in fear, disinterest, or hurry. Stories are raw, surprising and authentic. Some of our storytellers are homeless, some live in shelters, halfway houses, and the suburbs. All share the poverty of living ‘outside’ an inner circle, a poverty of relationships. All share a hunger to be loved and to belong.

Holding Out Hope is a powerful and risky exchange. Each candid photo puts a face to a name. Each story becomes an opportunity to see the humanity we all share.

Where do we find the courage to let ourselves be challenged and transformed so that we might rise up as messengers or peace and unity? I pray and hope that this…may encourage more and more people to risk crossing the barriers that separate us, and to risk becoming friends with those we have rejected, so that they too might rise up in hope.

In September 2014, Lesley-Anne Evans was asked to facilitate a small group of poets and writers at Metro Community’s Metro Central, a Kelowna street level gathering place for the marginalized. The “Poetry Circle” at Metro has become a weekly open table where regulars and newcomers are welcomed and heard. Participants are invited to share words in any form, life stories, and encouraged to live out the creative thumbprint of God on their lives that heals and transforms along the way.

At Poetry Circle, Lesley-Anne facilitates a way to belong and be known that grows through sharing creative works of writing, mainly poetry. Word activities include introductions to published poets and their work (contemporary and masters), free writing, found poetry, letter writing, and discussions around creative process.

The Poetry Circle has initiated projects such as the Metro Little Free Library, and stewards and stocks it with gently used books from generous donors such as SHARE and Bibles For Missions. A recent fundraiser became an opportunity for the first exhibition of one community member’s visual art and poetry. Lesley-Anne continues to look for ways of engagement that grow out of the common ground of creative arts and community.

Being known and knowing one another is where it all begins. A rich history of artistic expression within Metro Community, and deep ongoing potential, requires presence to build trust and invite engagement. Which is why Lesley-Anne has committed to being Metro Community’s Artist-In-Residence at Metro Central.

What is an Artist-In-Residence? Artist-in-residence programs and other residency opportunities exist to invite artists, academicians, curators, and all manner of creative people for a time and space away from their usual environment and obligations. They provide a time of reflection, research, presentation and/or production. They also allow an individual to explore his/her practice within another community; meeting new people, using new materials, experiencing life in a new location. Art residencies emphasize the importance of meaningful and multi-layered cultural exchange and immersion into another culture. (Wikepedia)

Lesley-Anne will be present at Metro Central on Tuesdays and Thursdays during open hours. Feel free to drop by and visit, and if you are a poet/writer, the Poetry Circle is open from 9:30-10:30 am on Tuesdays.

If you are an artist, poet, musician, dancer, photographer, with a heart for social engagement through the creative arts, please connect with Lesley-Anne in person or at mygracenotes@gmail.com.

Metro Central is at1470 Water Street, Kelowna, across from B.C. Tree Fruits.

1. Cascadia Review is publishing four of Lesley-Anne’s poems in their Fall 2015 Issue. Stay tuned.

2. We have just learned that Lesley-Anne’s blog, Buddy Breathing, specifically her post “Of Bugs and Bones” will be featured in the May 4, 2015,SOUL TELEGRAM – a newsletter of the best spirituality writing on the web. For more information on SOUL TELEGRAM, check out www.soultelegram.com.

3. Geosi Gyasi interviewed Lesley-Anne about her writing and poetry for an upcoming article on his blog, Geosi Reads.

4. April 2015, another National Poetry Month well celebrated, included Lesley-Anne’s recent Pop-Up-Poetry forays in Kelowna, and a collaborative Flash Poem, called Re-Vitalize.

5. Rumours of Opera Kelowna’s collaboration with Kelowna Art Gallery in the creation of a dramatic visual arts installation and premier performance of a new opera work in Kelowna this October, are true. Lesley-Anne reports she has just completed the libretto/script, as work continues on the musical composition. More news to follow.

Make Love Poems ~ Live Poetry Show

Wednesday evening, four local Kelowna poets served up a live poetry show called “Make Love Poems” at heART School on Pandosy. Each poetic collaborator, collaborated collaboratively in a love poem collaborative. They wrote #hastag poems on social media leading up to their event, then pinned up #allwedoismakelovepoems Pop-Up-Poetry around Kelowna as an invitation and a gift to whomever found them. Their event included individual work and, your guessed it, collaborative works. The audience was invited to collaborate in an interactive poem, posted HERE. It was an extraordinarily creative and heart warming meeting of intellects, minds and souls. True collaboration.

Full Definition of COLLABORATE (edits mine)

1. to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor

2. to cooperate with or willingly assistan enemy of one’s country and especiallyan occupying force

3. to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which oneis[was] not immediately connected [before.]

col·lab·o·ra·tor\-ˈla-bə-ˌrā-tər\noun

col·lab·o·ra·tive·ly\-lē\adverb

col·lab·o·ra·tive\-ˈla-bə-ˌrā-tiv, -b(ə-)rə-\adjective or noun

col·lab·o·ra·tion\-ˌla-bə-ˈrā-shən\noun

Want more?

For those who are interested in more of the poets, following are vital stats that will allow you to connect (for future collaborations perhaps!)

And, if you are interested in adding your name to the growing list of those interested in an #allwedoismakelovepoems book, please do so by commenting on our event Facebook Page HERE.

Earlier this week, Sage-ing Journal released its Winter Issue #14, and within those pages, the article “Writing A Friendship,” documenting a chapter in the story of two writers who find one another and begin to journey together. One writer/poet is Lesley-Anne Evans, and the other, her friend of almost a year, Amanda Kelly. Together, Lesley-Anne and Amanda are exploring the way they can sustain a stable and supportive friendship that is cross generational and open to change. Their collaborative article in Sage-ing Journal touches on their discovery process.

An excerpt from the article:

Q ~ What is your biggest struggle as a poet/writer?

LA: Isolation, feeling like I’m not contributing to “real life.” or what I’m doing has value. I think we all need folk to remind us that we are not alone and what we do really matters.

A: My Achilles heel as a writer is a paralysis that often comes out of the exhausting demands of my perfectionism. When I have my fingers poised over the keyboard, my mind twitches and suddenly my chest feels as if it is contemplating collapse. In desperation I ask myself is what I have to say even worth saying and will it be what I want to say? I eventually regain my breath, whether if it’s five minutes later or the next day; I keep going. Writing will always hold insecurity, yet it is often one of the few things I feel is feeding me nourishment.

With this Sage-ing Journal publication, Amanda celebrates her first publication of poetry and prose. Congratulations Amanda!

Sage-ing Journal is a gift of love and conviction, produced fully by volunteers to “honour the transformational power of creativity. We are a quarterly journal intended as an initiative for collaboration and sharing. We present the opportunity for the free exchange of wisdom gleaned from creative engagement. We invite all ages to contribute their discoveries.”

Sage-ing with Creative Spirit, Grace & Gratitude, invites you to engage with them. You may contact the Editor, Karen Close at karensageing@gmail.com.

Lesley-Anne Evans will soon be leaving gifts of words and light around Kelowna, B.C.. In her ongoing practice of randomly installing illumination into long winter’s nights, Lesley-Anne creates handmade luminaires, and places them alongside tea lights and poems meant to be taken home and enjoyed at leisure. In 2013, installations were placed at Orchard Park Mall, H2O, in parks and neighbourhoods, in addition to a month long installation in the Mission Branch of the ORL.

You can follow these installations at Pop-Up-Poetry and like Pop-Up-Poetry on Facebook, HERE.